Thursday, January 26, 2017

Beneath the Surface

Do you see the white froth of the waves as they crash into the sandy beach?

Do you see the beautiful color in the sky as the sun's light graces it?

Do you see the vivid blue-green color of the ocean, the waves rippling toward the land?

Do you see the light brown color of the sand on the beach lying in wait for the water to make contact?

You probably notice all of those things. Our eyes are pretty much trained to see things like that in a picture. From one corner to the next, from side to side, we see the various colors and shapes and details...

But we notice only what is on the surface.

We don't normally take into consideration the things beneath the surface.

We don't think of the sea life, the colors, the treasures that are living just beneath the top surface of the ocean - the things that are not shown in this picture.

We are the same with life outside a picture.

We see a person - adult or child - and make assumptions about them based on what we see.

Their clothes, their hygiene, who they surround themselves with - all those things influence our opinion. Many times our assumptions are wrong. Many times a person who is dressed in scrubby clothing, dirt on their face, and messed up hair has just finished working and is heading home to their hundreds of thousands of dollars in value house.

Sometimes that young woman who is eight months pregnant is not a promiscuous teen mom-to-be but rather, she is a victim of rape and is carrying the child to term because she wants to love that baby.

There are times the person who is acting grumpy has been up all night long with a sick child and is worried about that child.

Each of us is made up of many shades beneath our surface. We are more than the clothes we wear. We are worth more than a surface judgment. There are reasons for everything we do. And there are reasons for what others look like, act like, and the way they speak.

You do not have to understand their reasons in order to accept they have them just as there are reasons for your own behavior they do not have to understand in order to accept. We are human beings with feeling, emotions, and thoughts that vary in depth. What one person finds joy in another may feel apprehension - that is okay!

So before you make your next judgment about someone based on surface appearance, I challenge you to take a moment to think of what they are hiding "beneath the surface".

And now, I leave you with these beautiful pictures as a reminder to not miss out on something great by forgetting to look deeper...